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May 19, 2013

I used to cook corn unhusked in boiling water. Then we acquired a turbo
broiler. I thought, if I can grill meat in the broiler, it makes sense that I can grill
corn there too. Since then, I have never cooked corn any other way. Now our corn on the cob treats are
juicy, tasty, and so addictive.

Here are the steps to cooking the best corn on the cob:

Purchase raw corn ears that look fresh. Avoid those that have dried
husks. Peek into the husks to check that the kernels are plump and not drying
out.

Cut off the tips to remove the hair and the back ends. You might want
to use a cleaver to chop off the back end – I twist the scissors around the
base of the corn until the stalk is severed enough to allow me to break it off.

Place them in the turbo broiler and set the temperature to 450 degrees
F.

May 14, 2013

I volunteered to build the
Fili vest for Nina, a friend who's costuming this Hobbit dwarf, mainly because
I wanted to make the scales trim using polymer clay. Much like what I did for
the Thorin scalemail shirt for Oneal.Looking at the official Fili
image, I figured I’d have to make roughly 150 scales. I estimated I would need 7-10
pieces of 2-oz brown/copper/beige polymer clay bricks. I also figured I’d require
about a yard of 54-inch wide material, preferably faux leather or costume
suede. I found everything I needed at a crafts and fabric store and bought them
with discount coupons.

I worked on the scales first. I had made a positive and a negative mold of the four different forms, so it was just a matter of pulling 150 positives. Bake, then paint, and done!

It was my first time to sew
a vest, and my first time to work with suede (definitely more manageable than
marine vinyl). So, I was learning as I went along. More like winging it.Guided by the measurements Nina
sent me, I cut a paper pattern. I thought I had it right but after I had cut
the fabric, I realized I could’ve done a Dolman sleeve instead of a regular
sleeve. That would have been easier to sew, and would’ve looked closer to the
Fili original. But, with no extra material to revise my design, I went ahead
with what I had already cut.

It was nice working with the
costume suede because it doesn’t fray (didn't have to do any serging). And the fabric surface, while feeling a bit plastic-y,
does not get tacky under the sewing machine’s pressure foot. I just had to
guide the material so that it wouldn’t swerve too much.

As soon as I finished
sewing, I laid out the scales to check if I had enough. It turned out that I
had made too many because I had counted the scales on the real Fili, without
thinking that Nina’s measurements are certainly much smaller.

Using super glue, I attached
all the scales very carefully. No major mishaps aside from the three times that
I tore off a piece of finger skin that had bonded with a clay scale.

Fili Vest with natural light.

Fili Vest with camera flash.

Overall, it was an easy project – a couple
hours for measuring and cutting the pattern and material, maybe three to four
hours sewing the vest, and an hour gluing the scales. Preparing the 150 clay scales
-- conditioning, shaping, baking, and painting -- probably took the longest in
terms of manhours. But you really don’t bother counting the hours when you’re
having fun!The best part of all: bragging rights!

Photo taken at the premier of Desolation of Smaug in Manila, December 2013 with Nina (Fili), Dante (Lord Elrond) and Oneal (Thorin Oakenshield).